Paul Eduard Meyer

Paul Eduard Meyer alias Wolf Schwertebach (born August 4, 1894 in Dübendorf , † September 15, 1966 in Ermatingen ) was a lawyer , captain in the Swiss military intelligence service during World War II and owner of Wolfsberg Castle near Ermatingen in the canton of Thurgau. Under the pseudonym Wolf Schwertebach, Meyer wrote detective novels, plays and radio plays.

Live and act

Wolfsberg Castle near Ermatingen , residence of Paul Eduard Meyer from 1937 until his death in 1966

After graduating from high school, Paul Eduard Meyer studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. After two years, he left the ETH and began studying law at the University of Zurich , which he completed with a doctorate in 1920. After working as an auditor at the Zurich District Court, he opened a law practice with colleagues.

In 1924 he married for the first time. Meyer, who came from a wealthy family, was able to establish relationships with Zurich's financial and industrial circles through his marriage. After ten years he resigned from the legal practice and from then on devoted himself to the administration of his assets. This also included the restoration and maintenance of the Wolfsberg Castle above Ermatingen , which was acquired on March 23, 1938 . In 1941 Meyer married for the second time.

Military career

In 1914, the year the First World War broke out, Paul Eduard Meyer graduated from the recruiting school. Two years later he was promoted to officer. After the outbreak of the Second World War , the head of the military intelligence service , Colonel Brigadier Roger Masson , appointed him to the army staff as legal advisor to Interlaken . Soon after, Meyer was entrusted with the management of the security service in the intelligence service with the degree of captain . His special tasks included observing the front movement and he was responsible for the personal protection of General Guisan . He was later commissioned to gather information about Zurich's banking, trade and industry circles and was stationed in Zurich.

Meyer is considered to be the initiator of the secret news line between the Swiss intelligence service chief Roger Masson and SS Brigadefinder Walter Schellenberg , who was later convicted as a war criminal in the Nuremberg trials and who has headed the combined secret services at the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) since 1944 . The contacts were mainly cultivated in the dignified atmosphere of the Ermatingen Castle. Meyer's guests also included General Guisan with his wife and the head of the federal police department, Heinrich Rothmund .

After the end of the war, Meyer became the focus of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, which initiated an investigation due to its involvement in the business of the Swiss timber syndicate with the German armed forces and the high commissions for this trade. The "barracks business" aroused public interest because, in addition to German intelligence services, Henry Guisan, the general's son, was involved.

writing

As Wolf Schwertebach, Paul Eduard Meyer wrote several works, especially crime novels. Together with Stefan Brockhoff and Friedrich Glauser , Schwertebach is considered to be the founder of Swiss crime literature. In 1937 he also wrote short stories a. a. for the “Zürcher Illustrierte” Kümmerli, the petty bourgeois , old pharmacist Kümmerli , Kümmerli at the football stadium , Kümmerli as a bank debtor and Kümmerli in front of the tax inspector.

In the obituary for Schwertebach, who died in 1966, Major Hans Rudolf Schmid, a friend of Meyer's former head of the press office at the Swiss army headquarters, praised Meyer's books as being "carried out in a very ethical manner". The author tries not to convey thrills, "but to educate people about the depths of everything human - and to fight and prevent crime".

Works

Detective novels

Meinand Resich. Grethlein & Co., Zurich, Leipzig 1931. (The title represents a transformation of Mein other Ich ).
Murder for Malow. Montana-Verlag, Horw-Luzern, Leipzig 1933.
DKDR in the Gotthard Express. Montana-Verlag, Horw-Luzern, Leipzig 1934. (2nd edition).
The woman who wasn't. Morgarten-Verlag, Zurich, Leipzig 1939.
Esther Ruth. Morgarten-Verlag, Zurich 1943. (Cover by Fritz Butz).
Secret about kid. Victoria Verlag, Stuttgart 1953.

stories

Kümmerli the petty bourgeoisie and other short stories. Morgarten-Verlag, Zurich, Leipzig 1937. (Cover and illustrations by Walter Oberholzer).

Play

The invisible executioner. M. Kantorowitz, stage sales, 1937. (Performed in the Zürcher Schauspielhaus).

Legal literature

The legal nature of zone expropriation. (Dissertation), R. Noske, Borna-Leipzig 1920.
Murders in Zurich. Criticism and suggestions for the Zurich criminal service. Oprecht & Helbling, Zurich 1935.

literature

Hans Rudolf Schmid among others: Commemoration on the occasion of the funeral of Wolf Schwertebach (Dr. iur. PE Meyer). Zurich 1966.
Pierre-Th. Braunschweig: Secret line to Berlin. The Masson-Schellenberg news line and the Swiss news service in World War II. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-85823-194-0 . (especially Chapter 8, The initiator of the news line. )

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Hans Rudolf Schmid et al: Commemoration on the occasion of the funeral of Wolf Schwertebach (Dr. iur. PE Meyer). Zurich 1966.
↑ ^a ^b Pierre-Th. Braunschweig: Secret line to Berlin. The Masson-Schellenberg news line and the Swiss news service in World War II. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-85823-194-0 .
↑ Cornelia Stäheli: Wolfsberg Castle near Ermatingen. Bern 2001, ISBN 978-3-85782-687-0 . ( PDF ( Memento of December 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )). Four years after the death of Paul Eduard Meyer, his descendants sold the property to what is now the major bank UBS , which still operates a training center there today.
^ Archives for Contemporary History: Context. (Holdings of the Swiss Timber Syndicate ( PDF )).
↑ Paul Ott : Afterword. In: Stefan Brockhoff: Music in the Totengäßlein. Detective novel, edited by Paul Ott and Kurt Stadelmann. Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-0340-0912-6 . Quoted from Critical Edition , accessed December 3, 2013.
^ Wolf Schwertebach: short stories. Retrieved March 21, 2020 .

Web links

Literature by and about Paul Eduard Meyer in the catalog of the German National Library .
Paul Eduard Meyer in the archive database of the Swiss Federal Archives

personal data
SURNAME	Meyer, Paul Eduard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schwertebach, Wolf (pseudonym); Meyer-Schwertebach
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss lawyer, crime writer and intelligence officer during the Second World War
DATE OF BIRTH	4th August 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dubendorf
DATE OF DEATH	September 15, 1966
Place of death	Ermatingen

[gedenkschrift-1] Hans Rudolf Schmid et al: Commemoration on the occasion of the funeral of Wolf Schwertebach (Dr. iur. PE Meyer). Zurich 1966.

[braunschweig-2] Pierre-Th. Braunschweig: Secret line to Berlin. The Masson-Schellenberg news line and the Swiss news service in World War II. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-85823-194-0 .

[3] Cornelia Stäheli: Wolfsberg Castle near Ermatingen. Bern 2001, ISBN 978-3-85782-687-0 . ( PDF ( Memento of December 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )). Four years after the death of Paul Eduard Meyer, his descendants sold the property to what is now the major bank UBS , which still operates a training center there today.

[4] Archives for Contemporary History: Context. (Holdings of the Swiss Timber Syndicate ( PDF )).

[5] Paul Ott : Afterword. In: Stefan Brockhoff: Music in the Totengäßlein. Detective novel, edited by Paul Ott and Kurt Stadelmann. Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-0340-0912-6 . Quoted from Critical Edition , accessed December 3, 2013.

[6] Wolf Schwertebach: short stories. Retrieved March 21, 2020 .